We consider the multiplicity of stellar systems with (combined) magnitude brighter than 6.00 in Hipparcos magnitudes. We identify 4555 such bright systems, and the frequencies of multiplicities 1, 2, . . , 7 are found to be 2722, 1412, 299, 86, 22, 12 and 2. We also consider the distributions of periods of orbits and sub-orbits. For the even more restricted set of 474 systems with VH ≤ 4.00 the proportions of higher multiples up to sextuple are progressively larger, suggesting incompleteness in even the relatively well-studied larger sample.
We construct a Monte-Carlo algorithm that will generate systems with roughly the observed multiplicities and orbital parameters, taking account of selection effects.
